How much extra would you pay to have your water pumped?

Where do you live, that people don't pump their own gas?

Lots of good points being made.

 

New Jersey. The whole state is either mini service or full service, and stations get hit with gigantic fines if customers touch the pumps. So much so, that most attendants will push you away from the pump if you touch it.

Quick, funny story: My mom went down to Maryland with a friend a couple years ago. When they needed gas down there, my mom freaked out since there was nobody at any of the stations. She had no idea how to do it, and her friend ended up pumping the gas.

 

I think is water no it should be a service as I would not my water touched by everyones hands. I would rather have it pumped but in light of this discussion and the small profit or no profit margin the customer service would outweigh. I mean I have an over priced lfs local to me. He is always going above and beyond to help me so I keep all my buisness with him. I own a landscape co and through our pond division we can get a ton of stuff for marine at cost but I just get it all there as customer service is what is good. My wife does not question it and we enjoy a walk in service. Sometimes its easier to spend a bit more to get that. I also dont agree it should be more to pump the water why should the customer touch your equipment and do this. Offer them the service and ask them you got 10 gallons of ro/di water today mr smith would you like some blah blah blah for your tank today? its a win for the customer and a win for the store. get to know the people ask questions and sell them other products. This is not a cheap hobby and we all spend money somewhere so sell it to them.

 

I agree with this 100%.
"Please feel free to get your own water. If you need assistance, we are happy to help you, just ask".
Most of the time customers dont know they are allowed to do this themselves. If that sign is there though i would personally do it myself.
I am pretty sure that the time you spend doing this will decrease considerably if you did that..

Im not sure raising the prize on water is a good idea. Maybe testing the water i would charge a bit but not much.. just enough so that the test kit pays itself or a bit of profit.

I mean, the fact that im paying for water makes me feel kinda stupid. I like to make my own. 10 cents its not going to make me go to another LFS. i know everything you sell is of good quality so i will keep coming just as long as price is reasonable. IMO..

just think of it as customer service.. Yes they might just go to your store today to get just water, but maybe tomorrow they will get something more expensive. My LFS sometimes gives me freebies just so that i keep coming to his store. And honestly it works. You need to loose some to gain some.

 

Testing is totally different I would pay for that. It should be paid for as its a time and material thing. each thing is different.

 

So, you say that standing there pumping water doesn't count as time, but standing there performing tests does count as time? Should I only pay my service station attendants for the time they spend actually pumping gas? How about the guy making pizza at my shop, should I stop paying him at 2:30 when business slows down for a couple hours?

The world would be utter hell if you got paid only for the exact, literal amount of time you worked, especially since nobody who gets paid for 40 hours per week of work actually works 40 hours per week with absolutely not a second of downtime.

 

Wow there is a ton of interest in this subject. If you raise your price to cover your own costs I think you are doing it for the right reason. If you raise it because it is an inconvenience then you may be looking at it the wrong way. Filling peoples water for them is just one of those tiny things that build great customer service. It seems like a little thing, but to me as a customer I appreciate the extra attention and will gladly pay an extra .10 for someone to pour my water for me. If I had 5 stores around me that made me feel like my monthly water refills were a pain in the --- I would find the 1 place that treated me right and all my future money would be spent at that store. Customer service is lost in a lot of places and when I find a place that treats me right I will be a customer for life.

 

I have to say I'm glad I asked. A lot of your comments were very helpful. Thank you very much! I'm still not sure what I'm going to do, I'll probably wait until we get to the new store to make the final decision.

 

Nope I think that the gas should be pumped and if you ask the fuel attendant to go in and get a soft drink then yes you should be charged....the thing with water is its a way to Upsell on the things that make money for the store. I tell you what I hate selling mulch at my landscape yard its something that does not make us great money but having it alows us to offer other services. I am in the same boat with the small ammount of profit from it with cc fees but its better advertising and offering other things such as your store offers other things dry goods, livestock, etc... Testing water is like at the same gas station asking them to dignosing a problem with your car that my riend is an extra charge please go see our servce dept. There is a differentce not as I used a bad example of time and material its more a speciality charge and if you asked for free service work at your full service gas station you would not get it but having the luxury of a full service gas station where they pump your gas I assure you you would be buiser at that station.